Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to add my support to and commend Senator Back for the contribution that he just made. The Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee rarely manages to get unanimous reports. The areas that the committee covers often reflect some of the sharp differences between the policies of the coalition and the government, but in this case I was pleased to be part of a unanimous report and I commend the chair, Senator Back, for his efforts and his cooperation in being able to achieve that.

Given that it was a unanimous report, I can say that I endorse all the remarks that Senator Back just made, so I will not go on and repeat any of that detail, apart from saying that industry skills councils are an important part of the vocational education industry. It is important—and I think we have quite a unique system here in this country—that the industry itself develops training packages that suit the industry’s needs and that the industry itself looks at its skills needs over the next 12 months, five years and even 10 years. It is an important form of intelligence for the government in setting the policy parameters to ensure that we have a skilled workforce, a quality workforce, into the future.

As Senator Back said, we find that the industry skills councils, on the whole, work very, very well. There is always room for assessment and improvement, and I think the inquiry which we conducted was a timely inquiry and a valuable inquiry. I think that some years down the track the committee should do it again and just see whether we are constantly improving in this regard.

I am pleased that we have made the recommendations that we have. They are supported by the government senators on the committee. Again, I congratulate all members of the committee for being able to get a unanimous report on this subject.

Question agreed to.